Can you name one classic novel that you have read & which you wish everyone would read?

Dr. SC1ence

2013-08-28 06:11:29 UTC

REQUIREMENT #1: It is A CLASSIC--recognized by some authorities (teachers, professors, critics, booksellers) as having enduring worth, or, if it is a recently published novel, as being expected to have enduring worth such that it will still be read by many people 50 or 100 years from now.

REQUIREMENT #2: YOU have READ the novel yourself, all the way through, at least once.

UNNECESSARY COMMENT: What is and isn't a "classic" novel? Yes, this is a judgment call on some novel. For example:
--"Life of Pi", is it a classic yet? I don't think so. It's been really popular for about 10 years, and the movie of it was made. But will it sill be read 20 years from now?
--"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy? Doubtful.
--"The Unbearable Lightness of Being"? Probably.
--"Don Quixote" for sure is a classic.
--Faulkner's major novels certainly are.
--Gabriel Garcia Marquez major novels--probably, but time will tell.
--Isaac Asimov--I'd say yes, even though his are genre fiction.
--"Fahrenheit 451"--I think so.
--"1984," yes.
--"Brave New World," yes.
--"Twilight," by Stephanie Meyer. No, no authority will ever admit to the realm of "the classics," even if that is unfair.
--"The Hunger Games"--no, YA novels full of romance and adventure are forever banned from "the classics."
--"Lord of the Flies"--a lot like "The Hunger Games," but it may be a classic already.
--"Harry Potter"--no, sorry. That's why J.K. Rowling is writing other novels, hoping to get recognized as an author of something "classic."
--Stephen King novels--no, they are seen as being too formulaic, too genre-istic. But I personally think they are great.
--"The Unbearable Lightness of Being"--yes, it seems to be a classic, at least for the time being.
--Arthur C. Clarke--maybe.
--"Catcher in the Rye"--definitely a classic, for the time being.
--John Steinbeck--yes.
--F. Scott Fitzgerald--yes, but I wonder if his allure is fading.
--Hemingway--yes, but I'm pretty sure his status is sinking, since his macho swagger is now seen as pretty ridiculous. But students will probably have to keep reading his "The Old Man and the Sea" for many years hence.
--Jonathan Franzen--probably not, at least not yet. Maybe in time his novels will end up being classics.
--Toni Morrison--yes, I think so.
--Mark Twain--everyone has to read something of his in school, but I think just about every student find his stories to be boring and pathetically unfunny. But America is desperate for someone to be the equivalent of Shakespeare, so it seems like the English teachers will keep forcing Twain on us.
--Shakespeare--didn't write novels so he doesn't count.
--Edgar Allan Poe--I'm not sure. I personally find his stories too creepy to really enjoy them. His "Raven" poem is good, though, but since this question is about novels his poems don't count.
--Thoreau's "Walden"--not a novel, so it doesn't count in this Question.
--Nathaniel Hawthorne--maybe a classic, but lets not talk about his novels, since there isn't one student in American who actually enjoyed reading his stuff.
--Tolstoy--yes, but hardly anyone reads his novels.
--Jane Austen--Yes, she's recently moved into the classic status, but I think 99% of her readers are women, so this is kind of a strange case.
--Dostoevsky--yes, for sure. But again, hardly anyone outside of Russia reads this novels nowadays.
--Dickens--disputable. Some seem to think his novels are too sweet to be really serious.
--Jules Verne--?
--H.G. Wells--?